Our view: Health-care summit needs ideas from both sides

Sunday

On Thursday, our nation's Democratic and Republican leaders have a chance to prove that they can work together to achieve health-care reform.

President Barack Obama will moderate the health-care summit at Blair House. The 10 a.m. meeting will be broadcast on C-SPAN.

Health care has become a toxic topic, and misinformation, deal-making and partisan politics have stopped Congress from passing legislation.

Polls also reveal that Americans think that Obama and lawmakers should concentrate on bringing down the jobless rate instead of dueling over health care.

The summit invitation itself has been scrutinized. Should Republicans attend? Is it just "one last infomercial for the Sham Wow of ObamaCare," as conservative columnist Jonah Goldberg charged?

Republicans now have a public forum to explain how they would reduce health-care costs, improve access and stop practices in which health insurers can drop coverage if you get sick.

Legislators who want the best ideas to be enacted into law should listen to what ordinary people say about health-care legislation and about their own experiences.

Democrats missed the message that Americans with health-care insurance are satisfied with their care. These citizens fear new laws that would strip away coverage they depend on for themselves, their spouses, their children and aging parents.

For our "Cheers & Jeers" column on Mondays, readers send glowing notes to thank physicians and attending staff for the superb care given to loved ones. For many, health care is really about the bedside manner and personal attention we receive when we are ill or injured.

Would readers write the same type of letters if they suddenly lost their health insurance because their employers could not longer offer coverage or because they had lost their jobs or because their premiums for individual policies made such policies unaffordable?

The champions of health-care reform must make the case with the public that soaring health-care costs hurt our competitiveness and that, in turn, damages the American economy.

Consider Larry Kirk, 45, of Crawford County, who was laid off from his tool-and-die job in November 2008. He attends school in Meadville, works part-time and pays monthly premiums for a health-insurance plan called AdultBasic. Last month, Kirk learned that his premiums for this statewide, non-subsidized plan will jump from $345 to $600 a month on March 1. "There's no way I can afford $600 a month," he says.

Our economy can't afford a health-care system where costs outpace inflation and millions neglect their health because they can't afford care.

We urge legislators to cool the partisan rhetoric and embrace the best ideas to reduce costs and improve access.

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